Weekly Highlights
Mrs. Jaeger's 5th Grade Classroom
News and Notes
>Thursday, November 19th, we’ll be joining other Central Bucks Schools to participate in “Random Acts of Kindness Day”. This day is in honor of Abby Schumer, a CB student who tragically lost her life to a brain tumor in 2012 at the age of 10.
Thursday will be a school-wide “wear something bright or sparkly” day in honor of our efforts to brighten someone else’s day with our thoughtful, kind and caring deeds. There will be bulletin boards in the lobby and colorful post-its that students, staff, and visitors can write their acts of kindness on and post on the bulletin boards.
>Friday, November 20th - Turkey BINGO
>Friday, November 20th - Science Test - Weather Concepts
>No Spelling Test this week (student homework will count as test score)
Sun, Land, Water and Air = Weather
Ask your child:
What experiment is taking place in this photo?
How does it connect to weather?
Wind Spiral
Ask your child:
What caused the spiral to spin?
How is warm air related to weather?
Packing Peanuts & a Bike Pump
Ask your child:
What happened when Mrs. Jaeger pushed air into the soda bottle? (Tuesday or Wednesday)
How is the air pressure related to weather?
Science
The Weather Test will be this Friday, November 20th. Students should study their notes (in their yellow notebook) by reviewing the Big Ideas (written next to their light bulbs), the experiments conducted in class, the experiments viewed online, and how these experiments relate to weather. Students should also review the weather instruments used to help meteorologists predict weather. I have updated my Weather webpage this evening (Monday) with concepts to review and additional resources. Should you have any questions, please reach out to me via e-mail.
Reading
Because of Winn Dixie
As a whole class, we are enjoying the story of Opal and Winn Dixie and using the novel to explore the ways an author can help us learn about characters. We have charted Opal's words and actions to help us draw conclusions about her character. Students concluded, "Opal looks on the bright side of things despite the sad events of her past and her loneliness." As we continue to read this novel, (fingers crossed finish it this week), students will also try to identify/infer a theme they believe has been woven into the story. We will start by putting the statement, "Because of Winn Dixie is a story about..." and solicit the end of this statement from each student with the focus on theme. Students will then review the text (we now have 20 copies in the classroom) to find the specific evidence that has lead them to their theme inference. At the end of the novel, I plan to do a symphony discussion that asks the students one of our enduring understandings for this unit; "what insights about the world and human relationships does literature help us to recognize?"
Team Novels
Students will apply each of the above described charts and activities to their own novel to learn more about their main character and the theme of their story. Teams will have an opportunity to share and discuss their findings and engage in meaningful conversation about their inferences.
Student teams will also present six vocabulary words to the group that they feel are noteworthy for us to put in our own word banks. This will be a great activity to notice the words that authors use.
In the photos below, students are working to identify the challenges their characters have faced and how they have reacted to each challenge. This is another way that readers can learn about characters in their text.
Writing
Students will be sending their friendly letters to their "secret friend" this week. Students have also submitted a copy for my review. We will be spending the rest of our Writing block on mini-lessons around the idea of "show don't tell" which is an area I identified, after reading the personal narratives, that many of our students could benefit from reviewing and practicing.
Ask your child:
What is your address? (Many students do not know their house number, their city, or their zip code when they had to include it on their letter. This is a great time to check in to make sure your child knows where they live, especially if there were ever an emergency and they needed that information)
Who is your secret friend?
What questions did you ask them?
Do you think they will write you back?
Mrs. Megan Jaeger
Email: mjaeger@cbsd.org
Website: http://cbsd.org/Domain/877
Phone: 267.893.3700